Raith Rovers and Dunfermline fans put rivalry aside to dig deep for charity

Fans from both clubs dug deep to help the charity raise over £1500 in cash as well as donate hunreds of food items to help those experiencing hardship.

The annual collection took place outside Rover’s Stark’s Park stadium ahead of last weeks’ crunch Scottish Cup tie between the Fife rivals.

Foodbank volunteers, who organised the annual collection with the support of Raith Rovers, promoted the event on social media encouraging fans from both clubs to bring along a donation.

Joyce Leggate, Kirkcaldy Foodbank chairman, one of the volunteers on the day, said the collection had been a resounding success having raised almost three times as much cash than last year’s event.

She said: ‘I’ve never been to a football match in my life, but I was so impressed by the way the fans rallied round on the day.

“The generosity shown by both teams was incredible – not just the cash, but the huge amounts of food dropped off. It was humbling to see.’

The Kirkcaldy based charity supplies food parcels to help those who are unable to feed themselves due to financial hardship.

Run entirely by volunteers, the town’s Foodbank has seen demand for food increase drastically over the past year with demand in 2018 leaping to £78,983, in 2018, up from £44,383 in 2017.

The amount raised by the Stark’s Park event was enough to buy a week’s worth of food at the Foodbank.